Our Progress

6Welcome to DT Philly! We look forward to the great work your team will do this year! Don't forget to add an image for your team logo and to have team members log and choose avatars to earn 4 more points for this activity.

Badges

Start Up- Zeroll Badge

Congratulations! You're starting to see things with a designer's eye. Great design comes from moments of discovery such as noticing a problem or an opportunity. Sherman Kelly did just that in 1933 when he noticed a young ice cream server who had blisters on her hands from dishing out hard ice cream. Kelly designed a new scoop made of cast aluminum that had fluid in the handle to transfer heat from a person's hand. This feature lightly softened the ice cream, making it easier to scoop. In addition, the scoop efficiently rolled the ice cream into balls and did not have breakable parts. TheZeroll scoop is one of the best in the business. You can even find one on display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art!

Empathy- Better Shelter Badge

Thanks for taking a walk in someone else's shoes! Designers empathize deeply to understand the people they are helping, just as Ikea and Better Shelter did when they set out to create safer and more dignified housing for refugees. The resulting "flat pack" shelter can be assembled by 4 people in just 4 hours, is built to last three years, and features durable walls for privacy, windows for light, a locking door for security, and a solar panel that powers an overhead light and can charge a cell phone. Also, the ceiling is high enough to allow a person to stand up straight. Over 16,000 units have been distributed, and the shelter won the Design Museum of London's Beazley Design of the Year award in 2016.

Define - Woodland and Silver Badge:

Nice work! Research requires patience and persistence. Just ask Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver, who were working and studying at Drexel in 1948 when they overheard a supermarket owner ask the school president for help developing an automated system to read product information at checkout. They settled on a design—the barcode—resembling linear Morse code and obtained a patent in 1952. But it took much more work over many years before their vision could be fully realized, and it was in 1974 that the first product—chewing gum—was scanned at checkout.

Ideate - AP Thailand Badge:

Way to get creative! It's not always easy to see everyday things or experiences with new eyes, but that's exactly what AP Thailand, a real estate company, did in a crowded neighborhood in Bangkok where there was no room to build soccer fields. AP Thailand literally thought outside the box and designed non-traditional fields to fit into spaces that were considered unusable. These unusual soccer fields are a hit with residents who now have a place to play their favorite sport.

Prototype - C.B.E. Badge:

Far out! Drinking out of a cup is something we take for granted, but in space, nothing is simple. Until recently, astronauts have had to drink from tubes inserted into special beverage pouches. Then, some engineers came up with an idea for a specially-shaped cup that uses principles of physics to keep liquid from floating away in the zero-gravity environment of the International Space Station. In 2015, astronauts on the ISS began using 3D printed prototypes of the cup as part of the Capillary Beverage Experiment (C.B.E.).

Test - Waymo Badge:

Now you get the picture…testing is very important! How else will you know that your idea solves your problem (and doesn’t cause unintended consequences)? In 2009 Google began testing concepts for a self-driving car, beginning with a retrofitted Prius operating on rural roads. As their design evolved, their testing became more sophisticated, moving onto highways and then to more complex urban environments. The self-driving car project, which Google spun off as an independent company called Waymo, has advanced its design so far that they are now conducting a public test of self-driving cars with residents of Phoenix, AZ.

DT Philly - StoryCorps Badge:

Hooray—you are on your way to getting your story out! You want your audience to empathize with the people you are designing for, and to understand the steps, goals, and outcomes of your design process and solution. Take a page from StoryCorps, an organization that collects and shares stories to help people understand one another’s experiences and perspectives. Story Corps uses audio recordings, pictures, and animations to bring stories to life. How will you tell the story of your project?

To earn this badge, collaborate on a task with a mentor or design consultant.